Step 8 and the People He Was Told to Leave Alone – Jim P.

About This Speaker Tape

1970s, Florida. A teenager joins a burglary ring, not for money, but to score booze. Jim P. describes a life of "the mores"—an abnormal drive for more that led him from stealing his father’s .45 automatic to fleeing across the South, eventually landing on a chain gang at eighteen. He recalls the grit of prison, fermenting "buck" in socks and straining it through fabric just to get hammered.

After years of blackouts and a failing body, Jim found a Higher Power not through peace, but through a Holocaust survivor who told him to drink a bottle of arsenic rather than kill himself slowly. He traces the wreckage of a marriage and the death of a brother to the "selfish self-centeredness" at the root of his problem. His Step 8 was a lesson in restraint; his sponsor warned him that the best amends for some people is to leave them alone, lest they kill him for his past sins. Now a truck driver with failing kidneys, Jim relies on the Big Book as a textbook for survival.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Jim P. introduces himself and his home group in Orlando.
• 4:15 Story about the field mouse and the rabies shots.
• 8:30 Details on the burglary ring and juvenile detention.
• 13:45 The standoff with the Maitland Police Department chief.
• 17:20 Experience on the chain gang and making 'buck' in the kitchen.
• 24:10 The 'alcoholic prayer' and the cycle of blackouts in real estate.
• 32:00 Laughter: The 'labor pool' misunderstanding and first AA meeting.
• 36:15 The encounter with Leo and the 'arsenic' comment.
• 42:30 Discussion of Step 2 and the struggle with the concept of insanity.
• 48:10 Detailed breakdown of working Steps 4 through 9 with a sponsor.
• 55:00 The tragedy of his brother's death from untreated alcoholism.
• 1:02:15 Reflections on the Big Book and the importance of living the steps.